1971 Volvo 145S.

October 27, 2011

9 comments:

dead_elvis
said...

I had a '73 145(E - the F.I. version). By that time, the older, horizontal "thermometer" Volvo speedometer had been replaced by a normal one.

My wagon sat for a few years before I bought it (dirt cheap), but I was never able to chase down all of the various leaks due to old seals, cracked vacuum lines, etc. An old Volvo, down on power, is not a ton of fun to drive.

The classic wagon shape is so awesome, but this car design just seems kludged together. In this case it looks like the back doors are the same as would be used on the sedan. That awkward C-pillar doesn't mesh well with the rear half of the car and the rear cabin windows look almost an inch taller than the door seals. Why do that?

Volvo was doing modular chassis. They'd design a 2-door sedan first, then make 4 & 5-door variants. The doors on this indeed are the same as the 4-door version.

The 164 for instance was a 144 with a longer nose to accommodate the straight-six OHV motor, which itself was a stretched out 4-cylinder. The 240 series is the same chassis too, with a modified front end for MacPherson suspension.

So, you can make 2-door wagons and straight-six coupes if you feel like stitching a couple cars together. Pretty much kept that chassis in production from '67-93.

The hardware used and build quality of them before '73 is pretty impressive. Hell, even the paint. This is one of the last of the good ones.

68 was the first year for the 140 in the US, probably later '67 introduction. We had a '70 145S wagon with the automatic. It held up to my learning to drive in it in the late 70s. Not a lot of them around, even in the SF Bay Area- terrible electrical (ours was Lucas) major problems with the engine (camshaft at 40k). Traded in for a '78 Rabbit, which was a much more troublesome car